Shale

The Shale washing station is located near the village of Worka, in the Yirgacheffe region. Nearly 1,500 local smallholder farmers deliver their coffee cherries here during the harvest season. The coffee cherries are sorted by density using the floating technique: the lower density (and therefore lower quality) cherries float on top of the water, while the fruits containing seeds of the right density sink to the bottom of the tank. After de-pulping (removing the skin), fermentation occurs in open tanks, and the beans are then sorted again by density using washing channels. The seeds are then placed on raised drying beds in layers of about 20 mm, where they are dried for 10 days, followed by another 2-4 hours of manual sorting.